Insisting on a government that represents all American citizens and not merely a wealthy “elite,” the independent Vermont senator took to the pages of the Washington Post on Monday with an assault on the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a comprehensive military spending bill set for a vote in the Senate later this week.

“Instead of massive spending on a bloated military budget, tax breaks for billionaires and huge subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, we need to invest in the working families of this country and protect the most vulnerable,” Sanders wrote.

The massive unpaid-for defense bill is just one obvious example of the hypocrisy of the deficit hawks in Congress and their corporate enablers.

In addition to a $30 billion hike from last year’s already-gargantuan budget, the latest spending bill smuggles in a number of troubling provisions, including the “Caesar Bill,” which threatens to slap a new round of sanctions on Syria, Iran, and Russia over alleged misdeeds in the Syrian civil war. While several measures aiming to restrain US foreign policy featured in earlier versions of the NDAA – such as a provision barring US military aid to Saudi Arabia’s lethal air war on Yemen – they were gutted from the act in committee, leaving only the most hawkish elements in place in the final iteration.

A “hard look” at America’s endless wars is “long overdue,” Sanders said, slamming the enormous proposed budget of $738 billion, which now dwarfs several of the next largest military spenders put together.

Few of the ‘deficit hawks’ are asking if it is fiscally prudent to be spending more on defense than the next 10 countries combined – more than half of our nation’s discretionary budget.